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Tuesday, November 1, 2016

The Neoliberal Promised Land: "The Return of History", "The Market as God" and "Democracy on Trial"

The following are from CBC's Massey Lectures, CBC Radio's Tapestry, and the TED Radio Hour. They detail and explore the problems were are facing today. Specifically the competition between capitalist economics and democratic politics.

One thing Jennifer Welsh doesn't mention is that the defeat of the Soviet Union was
viewed as a triumph not of democracy over authoritarianism but of
capitalism, particularly Reagan/Thatcher neoliberalism, over communism.
So capitalism became the ruling system not democracy. Neoliberalism is
almost treated as sacred by parties on all sides. Neoliberalism expanded
the equality divide and that is threatening to turn democracy into oligarchy or raw authoritarianism. It is the dominant economic and political ideology.

Thatcher claimed that there was no such thing as society, only individuals and families. She was wrong but she has manged to create those very conditions. We are living in the a world where society is or has broken down down into competing individuals and families of interest. This is the Golden Age of Neoliberal Capitalism where the compassion required to help others and work together for the greater good has been deregulated to death and sold. Profit has replace true progress as a goal. This is Thatcher's dream made real.

Democracy requires society. An anarchy of competing individuals inevitably becomes authoritarian as advantages enable a few, then one, to take power. Good for business, not for civilization.

It is no coincidence that precarious work, wage stagnation, and equality, had been ballooning for over 30 years. Neoliberalism unfettered personal and corporate greed, eviscerated unions and labour rights, took away trade regulations that protected gains in living standards and rights, and channelled most of the economic gain to top. To investors. It enabled business to take advantage of more easily exploited populations without punishment buy taxes or consumers.

The Alberta Employment Standards declare that there is no difference between so-called part-time and full-time employees. No difference in hours they can be worked, but certainly a difference in pay and benefits. In fact the standards consider it fair for an employee of either type to be worked eight hours per day for up to 24 days straight as long as they are given four days off before being made to work another twenty four. This is work without unions. This is the "new" labour market. There is nothing new about it. It is a regression to the labour conditions that existed before unions. It is no wonder that businesses, many of whom are sitting on profits from tax breaks instead of investing them in jobs, are ditching full-time positions and replacing them with "part-time" ones. Precarious employees stay in line and don't complain. Especially ones that have had to collect massive debt for education and to make up for stagnant wages and no benefits. The labour market is regressing, along with our economies, governments, societies, and democracies.

Inequality is the basis and goal of unrestrained competition. There are always far more losers. Regulations, taxes, and unions helped equalize the effects of capitalism. Trade barriers that prevent exploitation and tax avoidance while protecting labour rights and standard of living, are not xenophobic, anti-trade, or"protectionist", just sensible.

We are living in the free market world where everything is either a cost, a resource, or profit. Where everything is for sale, truth has been replaced by advertising, and opinions gang up on facts. What we have now is a race to the economic, social, and political bottom with only the investors betting on it achieving any wins. Pleasing investors has become the sole goal of most businesses and governments making them the de facto rulers of most nations. The neoliberal oligarchy where only profit has rights, a voice, person-hood, and freedom. Where only investors are citizens.

Time and effort define labour and labour defines the value of a product or service. Labour is the basis of economy and currency. But neoliberalism treats labour as a cost and not the source of true capital. Capital is currency in its view. Labour is a cost. Thus currency produces currency without labour and labour is devalued and discarded. Neoliberalism's solution to its damage is more of the same on steroids.

Thatcher's war on labour must end before all life on the planet becomes casualties.

This is taken further in the article following the lecture passages where the idea of the Market as a god is examined. Neoliberalism would be the fundamentalist form of this religion, the Golden Calf replaced by the Bull.

Communism was the balance to the fundamentalist marketism of neoliberal capitalism. It forced capitalist countries to institute and protect labour rights and social safety nets to prevent citizens from going communist. When the authoritarian socialism of communism collapsed, neoliberals claimed socialism had been discredited, conveniently ignoring the Scandinavian success with a more social capitalism, a democratic socialism. Pushing this narrative and keeping the successes out of the media, neoliberals no longer feared revolution by the oppressed and immediately attacked labour rights and safety nets in the name of competitiveness and austerity, both for the benefit of investors. Neoliberalism became promoted as the one true way. Economic assumptions became the dogma of marketism and economists the prophets. Instead of burning those who dare question the blind faith, they relegate such heretics to the fringe.

But, that's just my point of view.

If anyone has
questions for Jennifer Welsh write to masseyquestions@cbc.ca

The 2016 CBC Massey Lectures - "The Return of History"

In his 1989 essay The End of History? American thinker
Francis Fukuyama suggested that Western liberal democracy was the
endpoint of our political evolution, the best and final system to emerge
after thousands of years of trial and error. Fukuyama seems to have
been wrong: our recent history -- filled with terrorism and war, rising
inequity and the mass flight of populations -- suggests that we've
failed to create any sort of global formula for lasting peace and social
equity. In the 2016 CBC Massey Lectures, Jennifer Welsh explores how
pronouncements about the "end of history" may have been premature.

Lecture 5: The Return of Inequality - Friday, November 4
​Jennifer Welsh is Professor
and Chair in International Relations at the European University
Institute in Florence (Italy) and a Fellow of Somerville College,
University of Oxford. From 2013 until 2016, she was the Special Adviser
to the United Nations Secretary General on the Responsibility to
Protect. She co-founded the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed
Conflict, and has taught international relations at the University of
Toronto, McGill University, and the Central European University
(Prague). Welsh is the author, co-author, and editor of several books
and articles on international relations, the changing character of war,
and Canadian foreign policy. She was born and raised in Regina,
Saskatchewan, and is of Metis descent. She now lives in Italy, with her
husband and two children.

The CBC Massey Lectures
is a partnership between CBC, House of Anansi Press and Massey College
in the University of Toronto. Named in honour of Vincent Massey, former
governor general of Canada, since their creation in 1961 by the CBC, the
Massey Lectures have established their place as a Canadian institution
and become an annual highlight of our cultural life. The lectures
provide a forum on radio where contemporary Canadian thinkers can
explore crucial issues of our time. Former lecturers include Martin
Luther King Jr., Margaret Atwood and Stephen Lewis.

Monday October 31, 2016

Lecture 1: The Return of History

In his 1989 essay The End of History? American
thinker Francis Fukuyama suggested that Western liberal democracy was
the endpoint of our political evolution, the best and final system to
emerge after thousands of years of trial and error. Fukuyama seems to
have been wrong: our recent history -- filled with terrorism and war,
rising inequity and the mass flight of populations -- suggests that
we've failed to create any sort of global formula for lasting peace and
social equity. In the 2016 CBC Massey Lectures, Jennifer Welsh explores how pronouncements about the "end of history" may have been premature.

"At the heart of Fukuyama's thesis was the audaciously optimistic
idea of progress in history. In fact, he claimed that history ... would
effectively end, or culminate, in the victory of liberty - translated
into the triad of elected governments, the promotion of individual
rights, and the creation of an economic system in which capital and
labour circulated with relatively modest state oversight."

Instead, we see human rights in danger all over the world, little
progress in social mobility, the rise of right-wing and centralist
governments and the mass fleeing of peoples towards western countries.
If there is no end point of political development, and the world is
unpredictable, then where do we look for the shape of the future?

**Please note: The 2016 CBC Massey Lectures are
available to stream online until Friday, November 11. After this date
they will be available for purchase on iTunes only.

Tuesday November 01, 2016

Lecture 2: The Return of Barbarism

"In the summer of 2014, the so-called Islamic State (IS),
locally known as Daesh, waged a violent campaign against civilian
populations in Ninewa province in northern Iraq, home to many of the
country's ethnic and religious minorities. As IS advanced on cities,
towns, and villages, it systematically wiped out centuries-old
communities and traditions, deliberately destroying shrines, temples,
and churches, forcing residents to convert to Islam at gunpoint,
executing community and religious leaders in public squares, kidnapping
women and subjecting them to sexual enslavement, and coercing young boys
to fight for IS. While the exact number of dead is still unknown,
800,000 people were forcibly displaced."

Half a decade ago, we saw the rise of freedom movements in a number
of countries -- Egypt, Tunisia, Libya -- but today those gains seem
mostly lost. Authoritarian regimes have been erasing the progress in
human rights and democracy that we thought we were seeing, and the rules
that govern conflict and maintain global peace are being erased.

Lecture 3: The Return of Mass Flight

" ...and then there are those who have opened up their
communities and homes to those fleeing their homeland. Starting the
autumn of 2015, ordinary Europeans began to consider whether their spare
storage rooms or bedrooms could be made available to asylum-seekers.
... And in our own country, in places like my home town of Regina, local
churches are raising money to sponsor the resettlement of Syrian
families. On the other hand, both national opposition to liberal asylum
policies and local opposition to refugee processing and reception
centres has been a growing phenomenon. "

Millions are on the move. Entire populations are leaving their home
countries to find a better life elsewhere, creating two problems: what
are we to do about the failed states left in the wake of this mass
migration, and, what are the more stable Western nations supposed to do
with this great mass of refugees and economic migrants at and within the
borders? Both closing the borders and opening the borders raises
questions about human rights, and the nature of the modern state.

Thursday November 03, 2016

Lecture 4: The Return of the Cold War

"On the afternoon of February 22, 2014, in the Ukrainian
capital of Kiev, you could smell the scent of revolution. Earlier that
day, the country's parliament had voted to eject its reigning President,
Viktor Yanukovych from power, following three months of protests and
clashes ... Meanwhile, protesters rode atop trucks in the central
avenues and squares of the city...celebrating what they believed would
be the dawn of a new era in Ukraine's political future. Only a few hours
later, however, in a city roughly 500 miles away, more fateful
decisions were underway which would lead Ukraine down a more uncertain
and violent path."

Fukuyama's essay was inspired by the apparent collapse of the
Soviet Union in the late 1980's. But the Soviet Union -- or the idea of
it, the muscle behind it -- is back. The Cold War, a kind of standoff
between two superpowers, is not unique in human history, but today's
version of the Cold War is triggering a domino effect -- instability in
Ukraine and the Middle East, the return of a threat to liberal
democracy.

Friday November 04, 2016

Lecture 5: The Return of Inequality

"George Kennan, a key architect of the West's strategy for
containing the old Soviet Union, was equally concerned about domestic
policy, and the condition of American democracy. The 'greatest danger
that can befall us in coping with this problem of Soviet communism', he
wrote 'is that we shall allow ourselves to become like those with whom
we are coping.' ... Liberal democracy endured and eventually triumphed
over communism, much as Kennan hoped. But seventy years on ... there are
strong reasons to believe that Kennan would be alarmed at the current
state of the American polity, and with the condition of democracy in the
West more generally."

There's a myth that great wealth enables our economies to grow,
but wealth can actually stand in the way of economic development;
inequity can slow us down. Fairness lies at the heart of liberal
democracy, and in the face of unfairness, we rebel. Unfairness makes us
work less hard to create a good society- why should I work hard, what's
in it for me? Economic inequality inevitably translates into political
inequality, which is not what we thought we were working towards.

From CBC Tapestry:

Sunday November 06, 2016

Is the Market the new God?

Wall Street's Charging Bull in stained glass. From the cover of The Market God by Harvey Cox.

"A few years ago a friend of mine said to me, 'You spend a lot of
your years studying religion, studying theology and all of that. But if
you want to know what's really going on in the world you want to read
the Wall Street Journal and the business pages of the New York Times.
Because that's where the real decisions are made. That's where things really happen.' So... I did."

Harvey Cox has been at the forefront of religious studies for over 50
years and is Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard University. When
he took his friend's advice and turned his attention from the Bible to
the business pages, he realized our relationship with the market has all
the markings of a religion.

"It occurs to me that we now have, among the religions of the world […] the great powerful growing religion of Marketism."

In his new book The Market as God,
Cox describes the underpinnings of what he refers to as the "deified
market". He points to correlations between religious institutions and
market capitalism to explain how consumerism is the new religious order.

Why is the Market the new god?

At the core of the Market is a controlling narrative (you must consume to be fulfilled)

The Market has a set of rituals (shopping)

It has its own cathedrals and houses of worship (shopping malls)

The Market has missionaries and priests who spread the word (advertisers, business executives, etc...)
"We often think about how Christian and Muslim missionaries or others
have reached out the whole way around the globe. These missionaries are
parochial in comparison with the enormous efforts and penetration of the
missionaries of the Market God. There isn't a village anywhere in the
world now -- I defy you to find one -- that hasn't been touched by the
Market missionaries." - Harvey Cox

The Market has its own prophets, those who are engaged to look
into the future, tell us what will happen, and tell us where to invest
our funds

The Market is omnipresent: it is everywhere. The use of Market
values has permeated courtship and family life (such as paying children
to do the dishes), medicine, and academia (Cox points to the way
students are now viewed as customers). The ads on our computer screens
and the telemarketers in our phones are more evidence of this omnipresence.

The Market is omnipotent: we trust in the ultimate wisdom of the
Market. Even after the financial crisis of 2008, which revealed the
market's fallibility, Cox argues people continue to have faith in the
market as a self-correcting deity that eventually will restore order.
Cox responds, "The poor are still waiting."

The Market makes use of parables. Cox describes how rabbis
traditionally teach through parables and argues, "Every commercial is a
mini parable": Act 1: A person is troubled by something (restless legs, blemished skin). Act 2: Somebody holding a bottle or a package promises a solution (get some today, do it now!) Act 3: Happy resolution. Problem solved.

Is it fair to say these qualities make it a religion?

Religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful,
pervasive, and longstanding moods and motivations. It formulates these
in terms of a worldview that influences human behaviour over the long
run.

Cox says, "This is exactly what the Market God is doing. It's a
system of symbols, stories, narratives [...] It has its own rituals, its
own temples, its own priesthood, its own prophets. It is a complete
system. And it has established -- and is establishing -- long lasting
moods and motivations, the objective of which is to get us to buy
things."
ClickLISTEN to hear Harvey Cox's full lecture as recorded at the Third Global Conference on World's Religions After September 11 in Montreal.

From the TED Radio Hour:

Friday,
November 4, 2016

Democracy On Trial

Democracy is often hailed as the best form of government.
But with a growing sense of distrust, should we rethink the whole
system? This hour, TED speakers ask if democracy is truly our best
option.

About Eric Liu's TED TalkEric Liu
says that voting is the most important thing a citizen in a democracy
can do. He says when we vote, even if it is in anger, we are part of a
collective creative leap of faith.

About Eric Liu
Eric Liu is the founder of Citizen University,
which teaches the art of powerful citizenship. Liu is also the
executive director of the Aspen Institute Citizenship & American
Identity Program. He's the author of several books, including A Chinaman's Chance, The Accidental Asian, and The Gardens of Democracy.

About Yanis Varoufakis's TED TalkYanis Varoufakis
proposes a provocative idea: democracy is not compatible with
capitalism. He argues corporations have gained too much control and
advocates for an "authentic democracy."

About Yanis VaroufakisYanis Varoufakis teaches economic theory at the University of Athens. He is the former Minister of Finance of Greece.

About Sayu Bhojwani's TED TalkSayu Bhojwani
urges her fellow immigrants to participate and find their own power in
the political process in order to make democracy stronger.

About Sayu BhojwaniSayu Bhojwani served
as New York City's first Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs and is the
founder of South Asian Youth Action, a community-based organization in
Queens. Since 2010, she has served as Founder and President of The New American Leaders Project, which is based in New York City.

About Sayu Bhojwani's TED TalkSayu Bhojwani
urges her fellow immigrants to participate and find their own power in
the political process in order to make democracy stronger.

About Sayu BhojwaniSayu Bhojwani served
as New York City's first Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs and is the
founder of South Asian Youth Action, a community-based organization in
Queens. Since 2010, she has served as Founder and President of The New American Leaders Project, which is based in New York City.

About Jonathan Tepperman's TED Talk
After immersing himself in the politics of Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, and many other countries, Jonathan Tepperman emerges with an optimistic view: democracy is remarkably pliant — and resilient.

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About Me

The Pündi are a race from my fantasy novels, the Continuum Chronicles, an exploration of spiritual evolution theory. Appearing like us, they are really child-sized aliens cursed by their own intelligence, trapped as observers unable to share their knowledge. They often develop an individual obsessive interest.

I write and publish, not selling anything, just trying to share ideas that might profit everyone. I aim not for originality but creativity, organizing what exists to generate new associations. I'm a writer with thick glasses and autism, familiar with the struggle for clarity. Novelist, researcher, internet activist, spiritual evolutionist, and process philosopher, I believe in democratic social capitalism with a well-regulated engine of sustainable markets. As a writer, I find that most blockages tend to be improvements trying to occur to me.